Cameron's Cottage

A stay at the cottage is a unique experience, enabling young people to learn invaluable new skills and enjoy an immersive wildlife experience.

A red brick house with surrounded by woodland. There are raised kitchen garden beds in front of the house.

A unique outdoor centre

Cameron’s Cottage is based within RSPB Franchises Lodge nature reserve – a dramatic woodland in the New Forest National Park. It's a unique activity centre designed to help teenagers and young adults to create lasting memories in nature.

We have all the facilities to ensure schools, colleges, universities, and groups can engage with the natural world in exciting and unique ways. Whether it's getting creative through outdoor cooking, tackling the grittier side of nature with survival skills and shelter building or learning conservation skills, visitors are encouraged to make any stay their own.  

Cameron Bespolka in the sun, with a bird perched on his head.
Cameron Bespolka
Cameron’s legacy

Cameron’s Cottage has been created as a legacy to Cameron Bespolka who died in 2013 aged sixteen. Cameron had a deep passion for nature, which began as a young child and developed further as he got older. Together, the RSPB and Cameron Bespolka Trust want to keep Cameron’s memory alive by encouraging more young people to find the same joy that Cameron found in the outdoors.

Day and residential visits

Cameron’s Cottage is a great pace to enjoy the natural world, have fun and relax. The setting of a serene woodland on the edge of the New Forest National Park in a working nature reserve makes a perfect venue for an immersive wildlife experience.  

We offer day and residential visits with opportunities to take part in rewarding conservation work that teaches invaluable new skills and get stuck into a wealth of exciting activities.

At Cameron's Cottage, you'll find:

  • Sleeping facilities for up to 19 people in four dormitories of varying sizes 
  • Two accessible rooms – one single and one with four accessible beds 
  • A fully equipped kitchen and facilities for indoor or outdoor cooking 
  • Accessible toilets and showers 
  • Communal areas inside and outside cottage, including outdoor fire pit with logs to sit on 
  • An outdoor study centre that's ideal for outdoor lessons or to support field study work 

Downloads | Booking form, pricing and activities

Can you spare some time to help us connect young people with nature? We are looking for Session Leaders and Session Assistants to help deliver activities for various groups of young people and children visiting the Cottage. Click the button below for more information.

Cameron’s Cottage partners

The Cameron Bespolka Trust
The National Lottery Heritage Fund
The RSPB

The Association of Bonded Travel Organisers Trust Limited (ABTOT) provides financial protection under The Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 for RSPB Sales LTD – Cameron’s Cottage, membership number 5492, and in the event of their insolvency, protection is provided for: Non-flight packages ABTOT cover provides for a refund in the event you have not yet travelled or repatriation if transportation was included in your package.

Please note that bookings made outside the UK are only protected by ABTOT when purchased directly with RSPB Sales LTD – Cameron’s Cottage. In the unlikely event that you require assistance whilst abroad due to our financial failure, please call our 24/7 helpline on 01702 811397 and advise you are a customer of an ABTOT protected travel company.

Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. The Cameron’s Cottage project is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to equip the Cottage and develop our ability to deliver engaging and memorable nature experiences for young people.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund is the largest funder for the UK’s heritage. Using money raised by National Lottery players they support projects that connect people and communities to heritage. Their vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future. From historic buildings, our industrial legacy and the natural environment, to collections, traditions, stories and more. Heritage can be anything from the past that people value and want to pass on to future generations. The National Lottery Heritage Fund believe in the power of heritage to ignite the imagination, offer joy and inspiration, and to build pride in place and connection to the past.